National Palace Museum treasures to go on display in Australia

The renowned “Meat-shaped Stone” will be the star of “Heaven and Earth in Chinese Art,” first-ever Australia exhibition showcasing NPM treasures from Feb. 2 to May 5, 2019. (Courtesy of NPM)

Dozens of artifacts from National Palace Museum, including some of its famous items, are set to go on display in Australia for the first time, according to the Taipei City-based facility Dec. 23.

“Meat-shaped Stone,” one of NPM’s signature pieces dating from the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), and 86 other artworks including calligraphy, ceramics, illustrated texts, paintings and sculptures will be exhibited at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney Feb. 2 to May 5, 2019. Titled “Heaven and Earth in Chinese Art,” the show will explore the ancient Taoist concept of harmony between man, nature and the spiritual realm.

Other highlights, also from the Qing era, are the painting “Up the River during Qingming” and “Ganlan olive stone miniature boat with the Ode to the Red Cliff carved on the bottom,” a tiny fruit pit sculpture that has never been exhibited overseas before.

NPM’s iconic sculpture “Ganlan olive stone miniature boat with the Ode to the Red Cliff carved on the bottom,” is approximately 3.4 centimeters long and 1.4 cm wide. (Courtesy of NPM)

NPM maintains collaborative ties with institutions in a number of countries including France, the Holy See, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S, according to the museum. This will be the first time its treasures have been displayed in the Southern Hemisphere, it added.

Established in 1965, NPM is home to the world’s largest collection of Chinese imperial art, boasting 650,000 antiquities spanning 7,000 years from the prehistoric Neolithic period to the end of the Qing dynasty. The institution’s Southern Branch in Chiayi County opened in 2015 to showcase artifacts from diverse Asian civilizations. (CPY-E)